Dodge: The company that gave RAM to the world

2013-11-21 11:43:23

Dodge was the product of Chrysler Group LLC consisting of automobiles, sport utility vehicles and minivans. The company was based in Auburn Hills, Michigan and its present automobile line includes Chrysler Badge vehicles of low priced variants and performance cars. The Dodge brand has weathered several ownership changes including a short association with the German owned Daimler-Benz AG for 12 years that spanned from 1998-2009.

The company was established by Horace Elgin Dodge and John Francis Dodge in the name of Dodge Brothers Company in 1900. Dodge company was supplying assemblies and parts to Detroit based automobile manufactures and in 1915 started assembling full automobiles even before the commencement of Chrysler Corporation. After the untimely demise of the Dodge brothers the company came under Dillon, Read & Co in 1925 before it was passed on to Chrysler in 1928.

The main vehicles that consisted of Dodged manufacturing included full sized passenger cars and trucks throughout 70s it definitely made some impact on the compact-car market at that time. The oil crisis in 1973 and the aftermath that affected the automobile industry in the US led to Chrysler developing the k platform consisting mid-sized compact passenger cars as model cars for the year 1981. This greatly revived business for Chrysler and one of the derivate of the k platform was the Dodge Caravan. After the 2009 bailout by the US Government Fiat acquired the major holdings of the Chrysler Group. In the year 2011 Dodge, Dodge’s Viper and RAM were divided and it was declared that RAM will be a manufacturer, and the Dodge Viper will be an SRT product.

In 1998 when Chrysler merged with Daimler-Benz AG the sister brand of Dodge, the Plymouth was withdrawn by the company and Dodge became the low price and performance division of Daimler-Chrysler. Dodge was well known for its trucks and its truck models were spun off into brand RAM which was the name of the most famous truck model manufactured by the company. The company since its historical inception has been offering light trucks but later in the 30s and 40s started manufacturing light medium and heavy duty trucks. Dodge is also credited with the introduction of carlike features in trucks in the 60s and 70s. In 1964 Dodge introduced purpose built vans call the A-series compact vehicles. The B-series introduced later featured car like comfort in the vans. The RAM Van or RAM wagon introduced in the year 1981 lasted for 33 years. The best selling Caravan was the Mini RAM Van that became Caravan C/V and it was renamed as RAM C/V in 2011.

Dodge also produced sports utility vehicles and came up with Durango, a four door eight seat SUV and created a new option. In the year 2011 a new Durango with unibody was released that was modeled on the Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was smaller in size compared to the original version. The current models of Dodge include Avenger, Grand Caravan, Charger, Challenger, Durango, Dart, Viper and Journey. International market for Dodge included all parts of the world except Europe where it had its operation in 1992 for assembling lorries using imported parts in the United Kingdom.

The Dodge brand was introduced again in Europe in 2009 but was pulled out after it registered poor sales in 2010. It also manufactured a British chasiss using gear boxes and engines imported from the USA. Dodge’s parent group is Chrysler Group LLC and its manufacturing division is RAM.